As a follow-up to last year's Tri-State assessment, Bronxville's K-12 science department has been focusing on critical thinking and developing common formats and assessments for laboratory work. Curriculum leader Charles Ippolito explained to the Board of Education how the program emphasizes the process of science - asking appropriate questions, gathering relevant information, analyzing, reasoning, and drawing conclusions. The teachers have defined the key critical thinking skills for each grade level, K-12. Mr. Ippolito described how the curriculum increased in complexity across the grades. The next steps involve increasing the use of technology and including more open-ended inquiry labs.
One Tri-State recommendation concerned the transition between grades seven and eight, and seventh grade teacher Jennifer Zopp explained how changes to the curriculum have helped prepare students for the independent thinking and rigor called for in the eighth grade program. Part of the new approach asks the students to reflect on their own work ("If you could do the experiment again, how would you improve it?"). She supplied examples of student responses at different performance levels.
Eighth grade teacher Jean Windels presented an overview of a laboratory performance assessment that emphasized the importance of planning the steps of a scientific investigation, in this case determining the percentage of air space in styrofoam. She also showed samples of related student work.
Mr. Ippolito closed the presentation by showing how the eleventh and twelfth grade standards build on the prior curriculum, with more emphasis on quantitative analysis. To keep current with science activities, follow the department blog.
